Confidential, Inc. v. Superior Court

Pursuant to section 416.3, Code of Civil Procedure, petitioner seeks a writ of mandate requiring the Superior Court of Los Angeles County to enter an order quashing service of summons upon petitioner, a foreign corporation, in a certain libel action therein pending. The motion below and the instant proceeding rest upon two grounds, (1) that petitioner has never done business in California, and (2) that process was served after all California activities by or on behalf of petitioner had ceased and the action did not arise out of any business done by petitioner in this state.

It appears that Walter V. Liberace, also known as Liberace, filed an action in the Los Angeles Superior Court in May, 1957, for recovery from petitioner, Confidential, Inc., and others, of damages for libel. The subject matter of the action is an article concerning Liberace which appeared in the July, 1957 issue of petitioner’s magazine ‘ ‘ Confidential ’ ’ and is libelous on its face. On August 16, 1957, process was delivered to Marjorie Meade, presumably as general manager of Confidential, Inc. in this state, the service purporting to be made pursuant to section 6500, Corporations Code, which prescribes…